Bicycle Playing

Cards

A sampling of Bicycle Playing Cards

Bicycle Playing Cards is a brand of

playing cards. Since 1885, the Bicycle
brand has been manufactured by the
United States Printing Company, which, in
1894, became the United States Playing
Card Company (USPCC) of Cincinnati.
"Bicycle" is a trademark of that company.
The name originates from the rst back
design which featured penny-
farthings.[1][2]

Bicycle playing cards are comparable to

USPCC's other brands like Tally-ho or Bee
Playing Cards, though different card stock
is used to produce them.

Design
Bicycle Standard Playing Cards: Ace of Spades, Joker,
and a red back of the card

Bicycle is a standard 52-card deck of red

and black colored cards. Also known as
the French deck, each card may have one
of the four suits: spades, clubs, diamonds,
and hearts. The numbers on the cards
range from 2 to 10, then proceed onward
to "Jack", then "Queen", "King", and "Ace".
The "Ace" has also been known to be the
rst card in a typical deck. The Bicycle
trademark is usually printed on the Ace of
spades. The deck comes with the hand
ranks of poker, an information card, and
two jokers.

Bicycle playing cards are sold in a variety

of designs. There are a series of Vintage
backs, bridge, pinochle, Pastel color cards
(which are colors light blue, lime green,
and pink) and Lo Vision cards that are
designed for the visually impaired. These
Lo Vision cards contain large numbers on
the face in a light blue color. Other types
of cards with varying backs and colors are
produced for magic.

Significance in American
wars
wars
During World War II cards were produced
that, when submerged in water, could be
peeled apart and both halves had a map
on the inside. When all the cards were put
together it made a large map. These were
supplied to POWs so if they escaped they
would have a map. One deck is located in
the International Spy Museum in
Washington, DC and there may be one
other in a private collection. Modern
reproductions have been sold in limited
editions.[3]

The company provided crates of Ace of

Spades cards for U.S. soldiers in the
Vietnam War. It was erroneously believed
that the Viet Cong believed the Ace of
Spades to be a symbol of death and would
flee at the sight of the card. In actuality,
the Ace initially meant nothing to the Viet
Cong, however it may have achieved some
psychological impact through its use in
propaganda and as a Death Card being
placed upon dead bodies. The belief that
the enemy was afraid of the cards
improved the U.S. soldiers' morale.[4]

The origin of the cards is attributed to a

letter written by a Lt. Charles W. Brown in
early 1966 to Allison F. Stanley, the
President of the United States Playing
Card Company. Brown had read remarks
from Congressman Craig Hosmer of
California that the Viet Cong held
superstitions of bad luck with pictures of
women and the Ace of Spades. The
Bicycle Ace of Spaces featured an image
of the Goddess of Liberty combined with
the spade. Upon conferring with other
lieutenants, Brown asked for 1000 Aces
for his company to use as calling cards
for his company to leave for the enemy to
see. Stanley was sympathetic to the
soldiers and pulled cards from the
production line to send free of charge. The
story was reported by several news
outlets including the Stars and Stripes
where the myth was distributed
throughout the military and more units
requested cards. The symbol was
eventually included in ofcial
psychological warfare operations, and
thousands of special all aces decks were
donated by the card company to soldiers
that purposely scattered them throughout
the jungle and villages during raids.[4]

Similar cards were produced during the

Gulf War in 1991, immediately prior to the
invasion of Iraq by US forces. Due to the
short duration of the conflict these cards
never saw battle.[4]

References
References
1. Dawson, Tom; Dawson, Judy (2014). The
Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing
Cards - Part 1 (2nd ed.). New York: Conjuring
Arts Research Center. p.492.
2. Knapp, Jim. Vintage Back Designs of
Bicycle Playing Cards . Retrieved 28 March
2017.
3. "A map inside the cards" .
Bicyclecards.com. Archived from the
original on 2014-08-02. Retrieved 2014-10-
31.
4. Herbert A. Friedman. "The Death Card" .
psywarrior.com. Archived from the original
on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 2014-10-31.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related

to Bicycle brand playing cards.

Ofcial website

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Bicycle_Playing_Cards&oldid=772578658"

Last edited 3 months ago by Counta

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

otherwise noted.